December Detachment Review: Final Day

I’ll be honest with you. I played GSC back in 9th edition for a few months, couldn’t win with them, gave up, sold them, moved on.

Then I see detachments like what we got today and feel sad about that choice.

Let’s dig into the new Final Day detachment for the Genestealer Cults. Important to note before we talk about the detachment rule is that you can take up to one thousand points of Tyranid Vanguard Invader units in this detachment which is. Which is both a very important and cool as it gets.

The detachment rule is called Psionic Parasitism and it lets you at the end of your movement phase select a Tyranids unit and a GSC unit visible and within 9″ of a Synapse unit. You deal D3+1 mortal wounds to the GSC unit, then heal that many to the selected Tyranid unit. In addition, you give that Tyranid +1 to hit.

As a second bonus, Tyranid models in your army get the Catalyst aura. Which is a 6″ aura that gives Genestealer Cult units +1 to it to enemy units within the aura. Very strong buff for an army which hits on 4’s and 5’s.

So far, this is all very cool. It’s the doomsday for X planet detachment, and it shows off the Tyranids really using the cult as a tool. Pretty sweet, and I’m glad we have it for the flavor alone.

Enhancements

The enhancements are all very good, especially within the army. They all help push all aspects of the army and the detachments focus. Which is what you want out of enhancements. Nothing lazy here like +2 wounds. Looking at you Votann.

Synaptic Augur is a 15 point enhancement that goes on a Tyranid model, which doubles the amount of wounds the bearer would regain from the Psionic Parasitism detachment rule. This can be a massive bump in healing to something like a Winged Hive Tyrant. The souls of your little guys really fueling the furnace of revolution. Well pointed, and potentially potent. A

Enraptured Damnation is 10 points, goes on a Genestealer Cults model, and makes the bearers unit not a valid target for overwatch. Always a strong stratagem. You don’t know pain until you get hit by 10 Acolytes with saws. S

Vanguard Tyrant is 25 points, goes on a Winged Hive Tyrant and improves the AP and strength of melee weapons by 1. This seems pretty strong, but you already don’t see Winged Hive Tyrants so who knows it it’s actually any good. It also seems a bit over costed by my estimation. Watch me be wrong and laughed at by all 3 GSC players in the city. B+

Inhuman Integration is 20 points for a GSC model. It gives weapons in the bearers unit Sustained Hits 1 when targeting an enemy unit within 6″ of a Tyranid model. Combine this with Catalyst and you’re bringing the paint really quick. A+

Stratagems

The stratagems here all fall into the same category of: This is both really useful and really flavorful. GSC players get a lot of flak for being either busted or terrible, but at least what they get to play fits their fluff in what is likely the most satisfying of ways.

Hyperferocity lets you re-roll 1’s to wound for a Genestealer Cult unit in the fight phase. If what you’re fighting is within 6″ of a Tyranid unit, it becomes full wound re-rolls. Very spicy. Reminder that Catalyst pops off hard with this. A+

Psi Surge is usable in any phase, but only once until your next command phase, and lets you extend a Tyranid units Catalyst aura by 3″. Why put yourself in a bad position when you can just pop this for a few extra inches. This rocks and has some very easy to understand use cases. Which when you’re playing an army as complicated as GSC, you want that. A+

Avenge The Star Children gives your Genestealer Cults units +1 to hit and wound until the end of the battle against a unit which just destroyed a Tyranid Character. I find these stratagems to be pretty good normally, but this one is tied to a character dying only, which is, less thrilling and makes it far less usable. Probably good for the game that it’s so specific. B

Divine Imperative targets a GSC unit in the charge phase. When you charge an enemy unit in engagement range of a Tyranid unit, you add 1 to your charge roll and re-roll the charge. Very fun and thematic. +1 to charge doesn’t feel crazy impactful for how restrictive the stratagems use case is, but with half your army popping up everywhere, I can see the hesitancy to boost this any further. A-

Darting Attacks is another fall back shoot and charge, but the timing of it is super important. You use it in the shooting phase or the charge phase. So you get to move then choose if you want to pop it instead of the usual movement phase timing. Making this extra good. A+

Resistance Tunnels is another pick up a unit outside of engagement range and put them in reserves at the end of the fight phase. This ones extra neat letting you pick either a GSC unit or a Tyranid unit. Either way, these stratagems are always amazing. S+

Lists

Today’s list is from the top table GSC man himself, Kieren Trimbee. He’s at the same time both one of the most knowledgeable players in our scene, and the nicest. What a hero, let’s see what he came up with.

Kieren “Arthurs Going to Hate This” Trimbee’s List

CHARACTERS

Biophagus (50 points)
• 1x Alchemicus Familiar
1x Autopistol
1x Chemical vials
1x Injector goad

Clamavus (50 points)
• 1x Autopistol
1x Close combat weapon

Patriarch (75 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Patriarch’s claws

Primus (80 points)
• 1x Cult bonesword
1x Scoped needle pistol
1x Toxin injector claw

BATTLELINE

Acolyte Hybrids with Autopistols (65 points)
• 1x Acolyte Leader
• 1x Autopistol
1x Leader’s bio-weapons
• 4x Acolyte Hybrid
• 1x Cult Icon
1x Cult claws and knife
3x Heavy mining tool

Acolyte Hybrids with Autopistols (130 points)
• 1x Acolyte Leader
• 1x Autopistol
1x Leader’s bio-weapons
• 9x Acolyte Hybrid
• 2x Autopistol
1x Cult Icon
3x Cult claws and knife
6x Heavy mining tool

Acolyte Hybrids with Hand Flamers (140 points)
• 1x Acolyte Leader
• 1x Hand flamer
1x Leader’s bio-weapons
• 9x Acolyte Hybrid
• 1x Cult Icon
9x Cult claws and knife
4x Demolition charges
4x Hand flamer

Acolyte Hybrids with Hand Flamers (70 points)
• 1x Acolyte Leader
• 1x Hand flamer
1x Leader’s bio-weapons
• 4x Acolyte Hybrid
• 4x Cult claws and knife
4x Hand flamer

Neophyte Hybrids (65 points)
• 1x Neophyte Leader
• 1x Autopistol
1x Close combat weapon
1x Hybrid firearm
• 9x Neophyte Hybrid
• 9x Autopistol
9x Close combat weapon
1x Cult Icon
1x Flamer
1x Grenade launcher
5x Hybrid firearm
1x Mining laser
1x Seismic cannon

OTHER DATASHEETS

Achilles Ridgerunners (85 points)
• 1x Armoured hull
1x Heavy mortar
1x Survey Augur
1x Twin heavy stubber

Achilles Ridgerunners (170 points)
• 2x Achilles Ridgerunner
• 2x Armoured hull
2x Heavy mining laser
2x Spotter
2x Twin heavy stubber

Purestrain Genestealers (150 points)
• 10x Purestrain Genestealer
• 10x Cult claws and talons

CHARACTERS

Deathleaper (80 points)
• 1x Lictor claws and talons

Parasite of Mortrex (80 points)
• 1x Barbed ovipositor
1x Clawed limbs

BATTLELINE

Gargoyles (85 points)
• 10x Gargoyle
• 10x Blinding venom
10x Fleshborer

OTHER DATASHEETS

Lictor (60 points)
• 1x Lictor claws and talons

Neurolictor (90 points)
• 1x Piercing claws and talons

“After trying to work out some lists, I think this detachment certainly has some usable legs. Its a neat mix between the other GSC detachments play with its focus on melee units leveraging the re-roll to wound strat (and charge strat if really needed) and the firepower/OC bombing of outlander with Ridgerunners hitting on 2’s and gargoyles being everywhere.

On a really positive note, I think you have a fair bit of choice in what you take for this detachment. Do you want the purestrain bomb? Do you want to play with xenomorphs in a truck? Abberants? They can all probably find a place here, especially when supplemented by very good scoring/mid-field lone-ops that put the toughness and survivability of a reductus saboteur to shame.

Combine those all with the resistance tunnels strat to go back into reserve (not restricted to something along the board edge like in outlander) means you have a very flexible army. The list I made is my attempt to make the most of the detachment rule and synergy between the two halves of the force… but I also think this list could work if you took fewer of those pieces and just used gargoyles to get +1 to hit here and there (with a notable sacrifice from deathleaper at some point) and played a ‘normal’ GSC list. Rerolls to wound and resistance tunnels are great strats that have been shown to do good work in other armies and GSC during the index era.

For those wondering about the 30 points I have left in the list, I plan on using the no overwatch and sustained hits strategem… however I am not sure which one I want where (one goes on the broodlord, the other on the primus with the bomb acolyte squad).”

Final Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of this detachment. It’s only glaring detachment specific issue is it’s vulnerability to any army which can kill either half efficiently. The detachment stops working once the army is back to being just one faction.

But I mean.

This plan has been generations in the making, so there’s no way you’ll mess it up.

Guess we’ll see.

Tomorrows Sisters. Here’s hoping that GW didn’t nerf Bringers of Flame to just release the next curse upon the Warhammer world. I can’t wait.

Thanks everyone, be safe.